Ansa app allows you to delete messages from friends’ phones

A new app that has sparked a lot of interest today is Ansa, a messaging app that allows you to delete messages that you sent friends – right off their devices!

This app should be a godsend for anyone who fears (or remembers) drunk texting exes in the wee hours of the morning or sending regrettable messages in anger to colleagues.

The app, which works on iOS devices and Android, is similar in many respects to SnapChat in that users can send messages, photos, videos and drawings to friends and that content can disappear.

But that’s where the similarities end.

Self-destructing media

Firstly, users can time the messages to disappear just seconds after delivery once you set the ‘off the record’ timer.

Going ‘on the record’ maintains the messages on you and your friends’ phone.

However, if you decide to delete the messages days, weeks or months afterwards, there is the option to delete the message not only from you and your friends’ devices but also from the Ansa server.

This feature is called sync deletion and the message is effectively gone forever.

The app is the brainchild of San Francisco, California-based 23-year-old Natalie Bryla.

Ansa appears to be in the vanguard of a new generation of messaging and social apps, alongside anonymous app Secret, where users themselves can set the parameters on what information, and how much, they share.

For example, if someone tries to take a screenshot of the conversation both parties will be notiﬁed, and the person who captured the image will have his or her account ﬂagged for inappropriate behaviour.